[JURIST] President Bush Friday released the National Strategy for Combating Terrorism [PDF text; White House press release], a policy paper setting out general foreign policy and domestic law enforcement strategies to counter and suppress terrorist threats [HTML version also available from the State Department]. Noting that terrorism tries to subvert the rule of law, the paper promises to expand law enforcement efforts to capture, detain, and prosecute known and suspected terrorists.

[JURIST] Professor Anne Bayefsky [faculty profile] of the York University Department of Political Science (Toronto) [official website] has launched a new website dedicated to facilitating access to, and complaint filings under, the various UN human rights treaties currently in force. Visit Bayefsky.com.

[JURIST] In remarks Friday at FBI Headquarters (streaming video also available), President Bush announced that the Terrorist Threat Integration Center [White House fact sheet], a co-ordinated intelligence effort by the Department of Justice, the FBI, the CIA, and the Department of Homeland Security, will begin work May 1. Also on Friday, the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing [hearing notice] on the initiative. See especially the testimony of Jeffrey H. Smith [prepared testimony], former General Counsel for the CIA.

[JURIST] The official texts of Friday's reports to the UN Security Council by UNMOVIC Chairman Dr. Hans Blix [report text; watch streaming video] and IAEA Chairman Dr. Mohammed ElBaradei [watch streaming video] on Iraq's compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 1441 are now online. Speeches in response by US Secretary of State Colin Powell [prepared remarks; watch streaming video] and French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin [prepared remarks; watch streaming video] are also available. The French Foreign Minister's speech was remarkable for having drawn applause in the Security Council chamber.

[JURIST] US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia defended constitutional originalism Thursday in an address at the University of Pennsylvania Law School [official website]. Read more about Justice Scalia's lecture in the Daily Pennsylvanian. The visit sparked a demonstration [Daily Pennsylvanian report] by students, professors and other activists opposed to Justice Scalia's stance on affirmative action, at issue in cases involving the University of Michigan that are scheduled for argument before the Supreme Court on April 1.

[JURIST] The US Senate resumes debate Friday on the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Thursday's debate is now available (in parts one and two) [debate transcripts] from the Congressional Record.

[JURIST] FindLaw has posted a copy of the complaint [PDF text] and the memorandum in support of a motion for a preliminary injunction [PDF text] in the war powers lawsuit filed Thursday against President Bush and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld by a coalition of US soldiers, parents of US soldiers and Congressmen challenging, under Article I, § 8 of the United States Constitution, the authority of the President and the Secretary of Defense to wage war against Iraq absent a clear declaration of war by the United States Congress. One of the plaintiffs' attorneys in the suit is Professor Margaret Burnham [faculty profile] of Northeastern University School of Law [official website].

[JURIST] Professor Jack Balkin [faculty profile] of Yale Law School [official website] has posted his reflections on a recent federal court decision [PDF text] holding that the City of New York can prevent an estimated crowd of 100,000 demonstrators from marching in Manhattan this Saturday to protest the upcoming war against Iraq.